GROWING up in the quiet Lake's Pen community, on the outskirts of Portmore in St Catherine, Romario Royes exhibited a love for animals from a tender age that his parents readily encouraged. When he turned 12 last year, he started raising pigeons in his grandmother's yard, next door to where he lived with his mother, father, brother and sister.

Romario Royes accepts his certificate from Miss White at his graduation from Kensington Primary earlier this year

The pigeons were his life, so much so that when they escaped from their coop two weeks ago Romario (affectionately called Sonny T) hung himself from a tree in his yard.

The cruel irony, though, is that a few hours after Romario's demise, his prized pigeons returned home.

The unfortunate event has plunged not only Romario's family but also the entire Lake's Pen community into mourning. His death is particularly heartbreaking for his 35-year-old mother, Sidoney Beckford, and 58-year-old grandmother, Precious Palmer, who raised him. For Beckford, the hardest truth to swallow is the fact that she'll never see her son enrol at Waterford High for the new academic year in September. At the same time, she said he never exhibited any signs of being suicidal growing up.

"It's a shock to everybody because him never show any signs of dat. He was a very happy child, always giving jokes and laughing. If you ask anybody that's the first thing they will tell you 'bout Sonny T," said Beckford, a picture of dejection as she spoke with the Sunday Observer last week. "Right now, I can only remember my brother running with him after they found him on the tree. Lord God, ah don't know how I going to cope."

Beckford was not in the yard at the time of the suicide, but Romario's grandmother, Palmer, was close by.

"I was using the washing machine and I sent him to go buy something at the shop. But his brother ran and called him and told him that someone made his pigeons escape. But after a while I didn't seem him and then one of the little boys run come and say 'Look what Sonny T' doing to himself', and by the time we reach around there we saw him hanging from the tree," she told the Sunday Observer, trying to fight back the tears. "He was my first grandchild. I feel it so till ah weak," she added.

A visit to the family home reveals several small shacks in the yard, a large pigeon coop and some unfinished concreted structures. A gust of wind sends a sheet of dust spiralling upwards across the yard.

A group of young children, who assembled in the yard, said Romario scattered some corn seeds in the yard in a bid to get his prized birds to return. When that yielded no favourable results, they said he ran off. One of the boys saw him in a tree at the back of the premises and ran to alert the grandmother. The boy, who spoke on behalf of the group, said the birds - Romario's 'Top Notch' pigeons - that had escaped returned to the coop later that evening.

"I never heard him say he would do anything like this before, so everybody is shocked. He was always enjoying himself with the other children in the district, playing and telling jokes," the grandmother said, as more neighbours and relatives poured into the yard.

Several of them remembered Romario as a well-behaved child, who respected his elders and was always properly groomed for school.

"I don't know what to say because he never looked like the sort of pickney that would do something like that. It's just strange," said one woman holding a young baby in her arms.

Romario's grandfather, Eli Beckford, who arrived later in the day, said he was finding it hard to get over his grandson's tragic death.

"It really grievable, man and I'm trying to cope, but the shock is too great, not just for me but for everybody who knew Romario," said Beckford. "I remember a lot about him and it's like he's still around, even now. We miss him a lot because he was a loving child, especially to his grandmother. He loved animals and he said he wanted to become a soldier so I always tried to encourage him."

Romario's paternal grandmother, Hazel Beckford, said she was also trying to remain strong as she tries to get over the harsh truth that she'll never see him again.

"We just haffi try and cope. I can't tell you how I feel. I can only put my trust in God and pray. Jesus knows everything. He knows every cause and every reason. We cannot tell why, but He knows," she said.

Psychologist and human relationship expert, Dr Veronica Salter, believes there are multiple factors that can lead to a child taking his or her life.

"With many youngsters nowadays, because of the games they play, they don't think of death as a permanent or final thing," Salter told the Sunday Observer. "I blame a lot of the cartoons that children are watching, including ones like Tom and Jerry, where you see a person or an animal die and they just get back up. After a while, it becomes a sort of built-in belief in the children."

Salter pointed out, too, that losing a pet can be overwhelming.

"Losing a pet can be a traumatic thing for a child to endure. Parents need to recognise when their children are upset and do not dismiss what they are feeling as something trivial," she warned. "Do not dismiss their emotions because in many cases, the bottom has fallen out of that child's world and any added negativity can push them further over the edge. Parents and adults have to be encouraging. Get the child to talk and listen to what they have to say."

The psychologist also hastened to point out that people living with suicidal thoughts do not always exhibit any tell-tale behaviour.

"We do not have a high suicide rate in Jamaica, thank God. But there are a lot of people, both adults and children, walking around with a lot of pain inside and they do not say anything," she said. "What parents can do is look out for changes in the behaviour of their children and any signs of depression."

Donovan Thomas, president of Choose Life International, a Jamaica-based organisation that works with individuals battling depression and suicidal tendencies, believes suicide among Jamaican children is on the increase.

"Based on the research and work that our organisation is doing, we realise that more and more children are wanting to kill themselves and are, in fact, attempting suicide," said Thomas, author of Confronting Suicide: Helping Teens At Risk (2002).

Thomas, also a former national director of the Jamaica Youth For Christ (JYC), said based on assessments his organisation has done at a local prep school, one-third of the school's children - between the ages of 10 and 13 - admitted to attempting suicide on at least one occasion.

"The age groups seem to be getting younger. Just recently, I met with a pre-teen who attempted suicide and the things that children like him are telling us are nothing short of shocking," Thomas said.

Salter and Thomas agree that there is cause for concern and warn that a harrowing trend could develop.

"We have to be extremely careful as adults and watch out in case a trend develops, because other children might hear of what their peers are doing and want to try the same thing," Salter told the Sunday Observer.

Romario's mother also wants to encourage other parents to pay closer attention to their children, even as she tries to process her grief and provide for her other two children (10-year-old Baggio and three-year-old Princess).

"In these times, parents have to start watching their children more because I never believed anything like this would happen to my family," she said. "I am trying my best to move forward, but every time I see the other two [children] I start to remember [Romario]. I don't know how I'm going to manage, and his father, who's gone to work, having it hard too. We need some help."

Salter says families like the Beckfords might have to turn to grief counselling services to help in their time of bereavement and said she was willing to help the family.

"The loss of a child, especially at a very young age, is one of the hardest things a parent will ever have to get over," she said.

On August 7, a post-mortem will be done on the body of young Romario, while the family will say their final goodbyes on August 16 at a thanksgiving service.

Feeding the multitude

DANGEROUS PETS

Pepper Pot